I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 1 

♦UNITED STATES OfTaMERICA.| 







a 



/, 



& 




GLEANINGS 

FROM THE FIELDS OF 

SCIENCE, ART AND HISTORY 

OR, 

INCIDENTAL TESTIMONY 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



BY REY. A. B. RICH, BEYERLY, MASS. 



WRITTEN FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, AND 
APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 



— H«* 

I 

BOSTON: 

MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, 

Depository, No. 13 Cornhtll. 







,H5 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, 

BY THE MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 

Electrotyped and Printed by "Wright & Potter, No. 4 Spring Lane. 



zni Y 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 027067 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Rosetta Stone. — The Zodiac of Dendera. . 9 

CHAPTER II. 
Physical Features of Egypt 24 

CHAPTER III. 

Shishak. — King of Egypt. — Relics and Sculp- 
tures 27 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Flood.— Noah's Ark 33 

CHAPTER V. 
Tower of Babel. — Confusion of Tongues. . . 36 

CHAPTER VI. 

Babylon. — Nebuchadnezzar's Insanity. . . 41 

CHAPTER VII. 

Overthrow of Babylon. — Belshazzar's Eeast. — A 

Discrepancy Reconciled. — Daniel's Promotion. 45 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Nineveh. — Sculptures. — Prophecy of Nahum. . 49 

CHAPTER IX. 

Sennacherib. — His Invasion of Judea. — Jerusa- 
lem. — Lachish. — His Death. .... 52 



4 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

CHAPTER X. 

Prophecy of Jonah. — Jonah's Gourd. ... 60 

CHAPTER XI. 
EzekiePs Vision. — Tammuz 64 

CHAPTER XII. 

Cavern of Bezetha. — Solomon's Temple. . . 69 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Early Spread of Christianity. — Persecutions. — 

Catacombs of Rome. — Sculptures. ... 74 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Paul at Athens. — At Ephesus. — The Goddess 

Diana. — Asiarchs. — Town Clerk. ... 82 

CHAPTER XV. 
Roman Government as seen in "Luke," and 

"The Acts of the Apostles." .... 87 

CHAPTER XVI. 
" The Foolish Galatians."— The French. . . 90 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Science. — Circulation of the Blood. — Weight of 
the Atmosphere. — The Pleiades. — The Firma- 
ment. 95 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Manners and Customs of Bible Lands. . . 104 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Conclusion 107 



PEEP ACE 



Reader, have you ever been present in a court 
of justice, where witnesses are examined, and 
lawyers plead ? If so, you will understand the 
value of incidental evidence, that which comes out 
casually, as men say, and without premeditation. 
You will remember how different individuals, 
strangers to each other, and without concert, and 
while each was laboring to serve his own ends, 
seemed nevertheless, on that occasion, to have 
been conspiring together for years perhaps, to 
screen the innocent from suspicion, or to hedge up 
the path of the transgressor, and bring his crime 
to the light of day. You will remember too, how 
numerous providences seemed to have been so 



6 PREFACE. 

arranged as to secure beyond a peradventure the 
same results. At the right moment, and under 
the best circumstances for the detection of crime, 
or the proof of innocence, "That which was 
spoken in darkness was heard in the light, and 
that which was spoken in the ear in closets, was 
proclaimed upon the house-tops." 

In the progress of worldly events, facts have 
occurred, histories have been written, notes of 
travel and discovery have been made, the monu- 
ments of past ages have been exhumed; all of 
which stand in relation more or less intimate with 
the historic data of the Book of God. They all 
have a testimony, which they are able to give, if 
interrogated, for the Inspiration of the Christian 
Scriptures. 

In an age when German Rationalism, French 
Pantheism, and English Criticism are all conspir- 
ing to undermine our confidence in these Divine 
Revelations, the author of this little work has 
thought it might be well to glean some of the 



PREFACE. 7 

scattered ears from the fields of Science, Art, and 
History, and bind them into a sheaf, as an offering 
on the sacred altar of Truth. He makes no 
pretense to a full discussion of the subject in hand, 
— the incidental evidence that the Scriptures 
are inspired; that those who wrote them were 
Divinely secured against error, and received 
revelations from God. His aim has simply been, 
by selecting salient facts, here and there, to 
suggest thought and study, and to incite the reader 
to note for himself the evidence that lies all 
around him, that the writings we call " the Scrip- 
tures," are indeed " given by inspiration of God, 
and are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that 
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
furnished unto all good works." 

"The Bible! that's the Book. The Book indeed! 
The Book of books : 
On which who looks, 
As he should do aright, shall never need 



5 PREFACE. 

Wish for a better light 
To guide him in the right. 

"It is the Book of God. What if I should 
Say, god of books ? 
Let him that looks 
Angry at the expression, as too bold, 

His thoughts in silence smother, 
Till he can find such another." 

Beverly, Mass., July 15, 1863. 



GLEANINGS 



CHAPTER I. 

The Rosetta Stone. — The Zodiac of Dendera. 

During the years 1798 and 1799, the Em- 
peror Napoleon L, and the literary men 
attached to his expedition into Egypt, might 
have been often seen gathered together to 
discuss scientific questions, and examine the 
numerous relics, which, in that land of 
antiquity, were every day brought ttf their 
notice. Not the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the 
city of the dead, Luxor and Karnak, alone 



10 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

attracted their attention. Objects less con- 
spicuous and striking — the smaller temples', 
the deities sculptured upon their walls, and 
the numerous inscriptions that covered their 
sacred buildings, their monuments, and 
their utensils, (all in a then unknown 
language,) — these also were suggestive of 
topics for individual and concerted study. 

At first the ignorant Arabs regarded those 
enthusiastic savans as priests ; afterwards as 
alchymists ; not being able to comprehend 
their interest in those old ruins, sculptures, 
and inscriptions. They at length concluded 
that the French had some traditionary evi- 
dence that those enduring monuments were 
built by their remote ancestors. It mattered 
little to those antiquarians what was thought 
of their labors. Their mission was research 
and discovery, not the enlightenment of the 
Bedouin Arabs. 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 11 

Two minor objects especially attracted 
their notice — the " Rosetta Stone" and the 
" Zodiac of Dendera." When the troops 
were building the fort St. Julien, at Rosetta, 
they came upon a mutilated block of basalt, 
containing an inscription in three characters 
— the Hieratic, or sacred text of the old 
Egyptians ; the Demotic, or popular lan- 
guage ; and the Greek. This inscription 
proved to be a decree of the Egyptian priests 
in honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes. It con- 
tained these words, " This decree shall be 
engraved on hard stone, in sacred, common, 
and Greek characters," (legotg xcu lyxugioig v,ai 
kXb]vixotg yoau^aoiv.) Subsequently this stone 
fell into the hands of the English, and was 
deposited in the British Museum. By a 
comparison of the two former inscriptions in 
unknown texts with the Greek, the key was 
at length discovered to the common and 



12 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

sacred characters of the ancient Egyptians, 
and, by means of these, to the more ancient 
system of hieroglyphics. Thus, by this 
" master-piece of criticism," as it has been 
justly called, the monuments and relics of 
that " Cradle of Science," ancient Egypt, 
have been made intelligible. 

When the French entered Dendera, a 
small village in the vicinity of Thebes, they 
were surprised beyond measure at the extent 
and magnificence of its ruins. They came 
upon the remains of a vast temple, every 
feature of which, " from the colossal figures 
of Isis, which support the entablature of the 
vestibule, to the smallest hieroglyphics, 
seemed to have come from fairy land. So 
universal was this impression, that the 
meanest soldiers of the army paused to 
examine those sacred relics, and declared 
with one voice, that this sight alone was 



' GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 13 

enough to indemnify for the fatigue of the 
whole campaign." 

The vestibules, halls, and chambers of this 
Temple of Isis were covered with hiero- 
glyphics. Those upon the ceiling of the 
portico were astronomical figures and 
emblems, conspicuous among which were 
the twelve signs of the zodiac. On the 
ceiling of a small apartment in the upper 
story, the same representation was repeated. 
Of all these sculptures the French made the 
most accurate drawings possible, and carried 
them to • Paris. The attention of learned 
Europeans was at once enlisted, and they set 
themselves in earnest to the task of decipher- 
ing them. The representation of the twelve 
signs of the zodiac copied from the ceiling 
of the little chapel especially attracted their 
notice, from its apparent relation to the 
precession of the equinoxes. 



14 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

As the earth moves round the sun once in 
a year, the sun appears to make a great 
circle among the stars. But if its position 
be carefully observed at the vernal equinox, 
it will be found, that when it comes to the 
equator the following spring, it does not 
occupy precisely the same position as it did 
the year before. The equinox happens 
sooner than we should have expected. The 
equinoctial point seems to have moved back- 
ivards, (or in a direction opposite to the 
earth's motion,) about 50" of a degree. In 
the course of 72 years its apparent motion 
equals an entire degree. In other words, at 
the vernal equinox the sun appears to be 
one degree westward of its position 72 years 
before. But one degree is the ^t^- part of 
the whole circle of the heavens. Hence, in 
about 25,920 years, (72x360,) accurately, 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 15 

25,868, the sun will seem to have made the 
entire circuit of the heavens. 

The moment the savans of Europe saw 
those drawings of the zodiac, they supposed 
they had before them the evidence of the 
very -great antiquity of the temple from 
which they were taken. They saw that the 
signs had been divided by a line drawn 
between Cancer and Leo, and that the sun 
and moon had been represented at this 
point. And assuming' that the builders of 
the temple had the same knowledge of the 
sun's apparent motion in the zodiac that we 
have, and that they designed to represent its 
position when the temple was built, they 
supposed they were able to determine the 
number of years since it ivas built. And so 
they would have been, had their assumptions 
been correct. Unfortunately for their 
theories they were both false. 



16 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

But what, according to their reckoning, 
was the result ? If they regarded the sun 
and moon as indicating the position of the 
winter solstice at that time, the vernal 
equinox would have been in Libra, or nearly 
eight entire signs from its present posi- 
tion. This supposition would give about 
17,000 years for the age of the temple. 
(8X30X72.) 

If they assumed that the sun and moon 
indicated the position of the vernal equinox, 
this would remove it nearly five signs from 
its present position, requiring for its recession 
about 10,000 years. (5x30x72.) 

Some there were, indeed, who reasoned 
upon the supposition, equally natural, that 
the sun and moon were represented as in the 
summer solstice, which would bring the 
vernal equinox in Taurus, or only about 45 
degrees from its present position. This 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 17 

change would be effected in about 3,000 
years. (45x72.) This supposition would 
fix the date of the temple about 12,000 years 
B. C. 

But this small number did not satisfy 
infidelity. It fixed upon the higher as 
undoubtedly the truth, and rung the 
changes upon them for about thirty years. 

If that temple had been built 17,000, or 
only 10,000 years, what could follow, but 
that the Bible was a cheat, and the Mosaic 
account of creation, which declared that that 
event took place less than 6,000 years ago, 
was a lie. It was demonstrated ! It was 
mathematically certain ! Infidelity was wild 
with excitement. It was trumpeted over 
the continent as the great discovery of the 
19th century — the Bible a cheat, a hoax, 
and Christians a company of dupes. From 
the hand of one of the professors of the 



18 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

University of Breslau went forth a pamphlet 
entitled, " Invincible Proof that our Earth is 
at least ten times older than taught by the 
Bible." More than fifty publications of a 
similar import were issued, while the 
thought was echoed and re-echoed in news- 
papers and periodicals all over Europe. 
The supposed " invincible proof" was 
paraded before all eyes, and it was thrust 
into the teeth of all Christians, that the 
bubble of Christianity had burst, and was 
henceforth to be regarded as obsolete. 

Christians had little to say in defence. 
They could not disprove the argument for 
want of data. They could only wait, suffer, 
and pray for light. But they knew they 
had not " followed cunningly devised 
fables." 

So great was the desire of the French to 
possess the original sculpture, that in 1820 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 19 

Lelorraine set sail for Egypt to obtain it. 
Mohammed Ali permitted its removal. The 
Arab huts that had been built upon the top 
of the ruins were removed, together with the 
rubbish that had been accumulating for 
ages. By means of chisels, saws, and gun- 
powder, that part of the ceiling which con- 
tained the zodiac circle was cut out, slid 
down to the banks of the Nile, and trans- 
ported to Paris, yet blackened with the 
smoke and soot of the sacrificial fires which 
ages agone the old Egyptians had kindled 
there, in their idolatrous rites. It was 
deposited in the National Library, and was 
indeed a notable relic, even if not seventeen 
thousand years old. So great was the crowd 
that flocked to see it, that the king was com- 
pelled to " deposit it in a dark chamber, 
while the multitude cursed both kings and 



20 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

priests for combining, as they said, to keep 
the people from becoming enlightened." 

Meanwhile, by the labors of Dr. Young, 
Dr. Lacy, Champollion, and others, the 
Egyptian hieroglyphics had been deciphered. 
The way was now prepared to study the 
sciences of the Egyptians. And it was dis- 
covered, (alas, how short is the triumphing 
of the wicked !) that the assumptions upon 
which their argument had been based had 
no foundation in truth. That the location 
of the sun and moon between Cancer and 
Leo had no connection whatever with the 
precession of the equinoxes, with the sun's 
place among the constellations, or its appa- 
rent motion along the zodiac. That it 
simply indicated their joint rule over the 
constellations, " one-half being assigned to 
the sun, and the other half to the moon." 
Their theories, based upon ignorance, 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 21 

exploded like a bubble. Their great eager- 
ness to oust Christianity and the Christian's 
Bible, had led them to commit a most silly 
blunder, and to bring upon themselves the 
derision of the whole world. 

But this was not the end of the drama. 
Haman is to be hung upon his own gallows. 
That mute sandstone was able to testify con- 
cerning its age, the age of the temple it had 
adorned, and the emperor who built it. 
Now that its sculptures were understood, 
they were seen to indicate the date of the 
birth of the builder of the temple, and to 
point unmistakably to A. D. 37. But this 
date answered to the birth of Nero. On the 
edge of the slab was found part of an oval, 
or cartouch, with some of the* letters of a 
name. The remainder was left at Dendera, 
the saw having divided it when the slab was 
taken from the ceiling. By sending to 



22 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

Egypt for a drawing of the .remainder, it 
was found to contain the hieroglyphics of 
the name of the 6th Caesar — Nero. These 
results were all confirmed by a comparison 
with the drawings they had made of the 
sculptures upon other portions of the 
temple. 

Here was proof that could not be gain- 
sayed. Infidelity blushed as it read on that 
sooty relic, A. D. 37, not B. C. 17,000, and 
since 1832, has shown little disposition to 
revert to the Zodiac of Dendera. 

These antiquarian researches constitute 
an epoch in the history of scientific and 
ethnographic study. They illustrate the 
tendency that has prevailed in every age to 
tarn every scientific discovery against the 
Christian religion and the Book of God. 
And they show the nature of the evidence , 
that is continually coming to the light, in 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 23 

support of the inspiration of the Christian 
Scriptures. 

Indirect, incidental evidence is regarded 
as scarcely inferior to that which is positive, 
in any court of justice. It is rapidly 
accumulating in our day. Let us gather up 
and place side by side several isolated facts, 
enough to see the nature and strength of 
this kind of evidence for the truth of the 
Christian Scriptures. 

Let us begin with Egypt, where we are 
brought by the consideration of the foregoing 
discoveries. 



24 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER II. 

Physical Features of Egypt. 

When Moses had grown to manhood, his 
indignation was roused by the oppressions to 
which the Jewish captives were subjected. 
Seeing an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, he 
took the part of the oppressed and killed the 
Egyptian, " and hid him in the sand." 
(Ex. 2 : 12.) To this latter fact, casually 
introduced, we may refer, to test the truth 
of the narrative. " He hid him in the sand" 
evidently in a hastily dug grave. 

Look now at the soil along the Nile ; not 
heavy or clayey, like that washed by the 
Euphrates. Then the allusion would have 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 25 

cast doubt upon the veracity of the narra- 
tive. Dr. Robinson, after speaking of the 
exhilaration of a voyage up the Nile, adds — 

" Yet if the traveler set foot on shore, the 
romance of his river voyage will quickly be 
dissipated. He will find the soil becoming 
an almost impalpable powder under his feet, 
through which he must wade to the next 
village" 

In such a soil how easy the burial of a 
human body ; how natural this method of 
disposing of it, when the next gust of # wind 
from the desert would smooth the surface 
and obliterate all traces of the deed ! 

How exactly conformed to the geography 
of the country is another incident in the 
story of Egyptian bondage. To prevent the 
increase of the Hebrews, Pharaoh issued 
this order : " Every son that is born to 
the Hebrews, ye shall cast into the river." 



26 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

(Ex. 1 : 22.) The river Nile was the most 
important feature of Egypt. Throwing the 
infants into it would-be the most ready 
method of their destruction. But such an 
order would have been irrelevant in Pales- 
tine, or in numerous countries on the globe. 
And travelers have demonstrated that the 
land of Goshen, where the Hebrews lived, 
was on the eastern, or Pelusiac branch of 
the Nile. There is a naturalness and adapta- 
tion in the record of the physical features 
of Egypt that confirms its truth. 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 27 



CHAPTER III. 

Shishak. — King of Egypt. — Relics and Sculptures, 

In 1 Kings, 14: 25, 26, and 2 Chron. 12: 
2 — 4, we have an account of the invasion of 
Judea by Shishak, King of Egypt. " Twelve 
hundred chariots, and three score thousand 
horsemen, and footmen without number ; " 
such was his army. " And he took the 
fenced (walled) cities which pertained to 
Judah, the treasures of the Lord's house, 
and of the king's house, and made Reho- 
boam and his people his servants." He 
returned to Egypt and made a record of that 
invasion in sculpture, upon the walls of the 
great temple of Karnac. 



28 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

"A colossal figure," says Robinson, "is 
seen advancing in his chariot, holding in his 
hand ten cords, which are attached to as 
many rows of captives that follow behind 
him." This was evidently a representation 
of his triumphal entry into Thebes, on his 
return. Amidst these figures, and filling up 
the history of the campaign, are the names, 
"Kingdom of Judah," "Megiddo," "He- 
bron," " Beth-shan," " Taanak," " Valley 
of Hinnom," and the " Great Place," or 
Jerusalem. 

The Rosetta Stone was not discovered in 
vain. Who shall say that its discovery was 
not the great purpose in the mind of God, 
of Napoleon's expedition into Egypt ? 
" Nevertheless, he meant it not so, neither 
did his heart think so." 

In Dr. Abbott's Museum of Egyptian 
Antiquities, in the city of New York, there 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 29 

may be seen the breast-plate of this same 
Shishak, made of iron scales, perhaps worn 
in this very expedition, a relic more than 
twenty-seven hundred years old, brought to 
light in this age to confirm these ancient 
Hebrew records. 

In that collection, there is a vase of green 
earthen-ware, " found in the plain of Zoar," 
bearing the name of Zerah, the Egyptian 
king, who made war upon king Asa with 
more than a million of men, but was signally 
defeated. (2 Chron. 14: 9—15.) We 
should not expect to find any monumental 
records of this invasion, since it was unsuc- 
cessful and disastrous. This small relic, 
however, testified to the existence of such a 
character , and thus aids in giving validity to 
the record in the Chronicles. 

There, too, are seen numerous specimens 
of brick, from the ruins of Thebes, Sakhqxah, 



30 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

and Heliopolis, some of which bear the 
stamp of Thothmes III., the Pharaoh who 
" made the lives of the Israelites bitter with 
hard bondage in mortar and in brick." 
(Ex. 1 : 14.) Those very brick may have 
been moulded by their hands. The straw 
that is seen in them, as they crumble to 
pieces, may have been gathered by them 
from the fields to add to their already too 
heavy burdens. 

A recent American traveler has testified, 
that "In the tomb of Roschere — the overseer 
of public buildings under Thothmes III. — we 
saw the whole process of brick-making 
depicted. Some are digging and mixing the 
clay ; others shaping it in the mould ; others 
are taking the bricks from the form ; and 
others carrying them away to be dried. In 
another tomb the mode of reaping grain is 
illustrated. It is cut a little below the ear, 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 31 

and the straw left standing in the field. In 
fact, we saw almost the entire history of 
Joseph and the Israelites pictured upon the 
tombs, and sculptured upon the monuments 
of ancient Egypt." 

Not only have the monumental records of 
that ancient land been deciphered, but the 
papyri, or books, some of which are still 
preserved. And there are found the names 
of Moses, and James, who, Paul says, " with- 
stood him." Moses is represented as a 
worker of miracles ; as the leader of a people 
who marched eastward, by the route of 
Mizdol and Zoar ; who had a contest with 
the Egyptians at a place of a great water- 
flood ; and a reference is made to the myste- 
rious death of one of the royal youth, 
perhaps the one Moses slew and hid in the 
sand. 

These are some of the relics which have 



32 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

already been gleaned from the land of the 
Pharaohs, to illustrate the truth of the 
Pentateuch. So far as any references have 
been found to places, persons, or events 
described by Moses, they confirm his 
narrative. 



GLEANINGS FROM- SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 



CHAPTER I Y. 

The Flood.— Noah's Ark. 

One of the earliest historic events narrated 
by Moses is the account of the flood. Is his 
narrative confirmed by any data in our 
possession ? Yes, the dimensions of the ark, 
as there given, testify to its inspiration. He 
affirms that God gave to Noah those 
dimensions. 

What now, according to the light which 
naval architecture has shed upon the sub- 
ject, was the nature of that model ? If 
uncouth and disproportioned, it did not 
originate with God, who knows all the laws 

of wind and water, the strength of materials, 
3 



34 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

and the equilibrium of floating bodies. 
Modern architects acknowledge that the 
proportions given are found to be the very 
ones best adapted to the construction of a 
vessel in order that it may receive and 
transport in safety the greatest possible 
tunnage. 

Let us consider this fact, connected with 
the first water-craft of which we have any 
knowledge. It was an immense structure, 
equivalent to almost a score of first-rate 
men-of-war. Its model was perfect. And 
yet Moses was not a ship-builder ; not a 
seaman ; had never in his life crossed but 
one sea, and that " on dry land." How 
could he have known the perfect proportions 
for modeling a vessel, which have taxed the 
powers of nautical science and human inge- 
nuity for centuries ? It is manifestly impos- 
sible! And the same impossibility will 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 35 

present itself whosoever we may assume to 
have originated the model in that early age. 
It must have come from God, as Moses 
affirms. This narrative, then, stands as a 
witness to the truth of his account of the 
flood. This account being true, the early 
wickedness of the race follows, and the 
credibility of all Moses wrote. 



36 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER V. 

Tower of Babel. — -Confusion of Tongues. 

The foundations of Babylon were laid soon 
after the flood, in the mad project of men to 
scale heaven by a tower, and make them- 
selves a name in the earth. Moses repre- 
sents the builders as counseling together in 
this language : " Let us make brick, and 
burn them thoroughly." (Gen. 11 : 3.) 

Now a traveler, roaming over Assyria with 
this statement in his hand, would feel that 
the physical features of the country might be 
referred to, to confirm or invalidate its claim 
to inspiration. And what would he find ? 
A rocky region, supplying to their hand the 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 87 

materials for an enduring structure, such as 
the Tower of Babel was designed to be ? 
Then what need of brick ? Or a sandy soil, 
deprived of the necessary ingredients for 
their manufacture ? Then what possibility ? 
The facts, as stated by modern travelers, 
are simply these. Stone quarries are, and 
ever have been, utterly unknown throughout 
the whole region of Babylon, while the soil 
is remarkably fitted for the manufacture of 
brick. It consists of a fine clay mixed with 
sand. With this, as the waters of the river 
retire, its banks are covered. This compost 
furnished the finest materials existing for 
brick-making. And so " thoroughly did 
they burn them," that the tooth of time has 
not yet been able to devour them. They 
come forth from their mounds of rubbish as 
sound as when laid by those ancient masons, 
and covered with inscriptions in the old 



38 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

Assyrian character. They have a resurrec- 
tion in this sceptical age to testify to the 
inspiration of Moses, and the truth of his 
narrative, though writing of events that 
transpired long before his day, and of a land 
he had never visited. 

Again, Moses tells us in what those bricks 
were laid. "Slime," or bitumen, " had they 
for mortar." (Gen. 11 : 3.) And the 
traveler finds along the banks of the Euphra- 
tes, and near the site of the city, this natural 
cement, boiling up like water from the earth. 
Layard discovered the same phenomenon in 
the vicinity of ancient Nineveh, and illus- 
trates the reference here made to the use of 
this bitumen instead of mortar. Speaking 
of the removal of some colossal lions from 
the palace of Nimroud, he says : " The 
sculptures rested simply upon the platform 
of sun-dried bricks, without any other sub- 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 39 

structure, a mere layer of bitumen, about an 
inch thick, having been placed under the 
plinth." {Nineveh and Babylon, vol. ii., 
p. 203.) 

Here, then, is circumstantial evidence, 
confirming the narrative of Moses in several 
particulars. They made brick because the 
country afforded no supply of stone. They 
used bitumen for cement because they had 
no lime for mortar. The bricks themselves 
show that they were " burned thoroughly," 
and not merely sun-dried. The inscriptions 
show their date. These coincidences show 
that the storjt of Babel is not a mere human 
record, a happy guess, a fabrication, or a 
myth. It is God's record of human folly, 
" written for our learning." 

There is another striking incident con- 
nected with this transaction. " The Lord 
did then confound the language of all the 



40 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

earth, and they left off to build the city." 
(Gen. 11: 7 — 9.) One proof of this is the 
diversity of tongues actually existing among 
the different races and tribes of mankind. 
Another is found in the traditions respecting 
the origin of this diversity, as - preserved by 
Berosus, Abydenus, and Polyhistor, all of 
which are strikingly conformed to the state- 
ments of Moses. They all agree in respect 
to the three prominent features of Moses' 
narrative. The race was previously of one. 
speech ; the confusion occurred in connection 
with the Tower of Babel ; and the work of 
building was stayed in consequence. 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 41 



CHAPTER VI. 

Babylon. — Nebuchadnezzar's Insanity. 

Babel became the nucleus of Babylon, and 
gave the city and province its name. 
Around it men gathered, built their habita- 
tions, and dwelt by millions as the centuries 
rolled on. Nebuchadnezzar greatly enlarged 
and beautified it, and, proud of the magnifi- 
cence he had given to the city, exclaimed, 
while surveying it from the roof of his 
palace — 

" Is not this great Babylon that I have 
built for the house of my kingdom, by the 
might of my power, and for the honor of my 
majesty?" (Dan. 4: 29, 30.) 



42 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

Recently, by the enterprise of Layard and 
others, the ruins of that city have been laid 
open to the light. " They consist princi- 
pally," says Layard, " of loose bricks, tiles, 
and fragments of stone. The bricks are of a 
pale yellow color, and upon nearly every one 
are clearly and deeply stamped the name 
and titles of Nebuchadnezzar." More than 
twenty-three hundred years have passed since 
that boastful speech was made on the roof of 
his palace ; and now its ruins come forth to 
illustrate the record of the Jewish prophet 
whom he had carried away captive in the 
sack of Jerusalem. 

Daniel records the circumstances that 
attended his speech — the fearful malady, or 
temporary insanity that came upon him, 
when " he was driven from men, and made 
his dwelling with the beasts, and did eat 
grass as oxen." (Dan. 4: 33.) He recov- 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 43 

ered ; and it was doubtless with reference to 
this affliction that he caused an inscription 
to be made of which Rawlinson has given us 
the following translation : — 

" Four years (?} . . . the seat of my king- 
dom in the city . . . which . . . did not 
rejoice my heart. In all my dominions I 
did not build a place of power ; the precious 
treasures of my kingdom I did not lay up. 
In Babylon, buildings for myself and for the 
honor of my kingdom I did not lay out. In 
the worship of Merodach, my lord, the joy 
of my heart, (?) in Babylon, the city of his 
sovereignty and the seat of my empire, I did 
not sing his praises, (?) and I did not fur- 
nish his altars (with victims), nor did I 
clear out the canals." (Sir H. Rawlinson's 
Herodotus, vol. ii., pp. 585 — 587.) 

It would not have been natural for a 
monarch to have allowed any very extended 



44 . INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

account of his insanity to descend to poster- 
ity. It is wonderful, shall we not say Prov- 
idential, that he should cause so explicit a 
statement to be made, in the first person, as 
if on purpose to meet the £ avils that might 
be raised against the credibility of Daniel, on 
the ground of the improbability of the trans- 
action, and the want of other evidence ? 
God provides for every exigency, and brings 
forward the evidence as fast as it is needed. 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 45 



CHAPTER VII. 

Overthrow of Babylon. — Belshazzar's Feast. — A 
Discrepancy Reconciled. — DanieVs Promotion. 

Daniel describes also the overthrow of 
Babylon by the Me do-Persian power. Its 
king, Belshazzar, was feasting in his palace. 
A hand as of a man is seen on the wall 
delineating his fate. " Mexe, Mexe, Tekel, 
Upharsin." (Dan. 5 : 5, 25.) While these 
things are transpiring in the palace, Cyrus is 
marching his army through the bed of the 
Euphrates, and entering the city by the 
river gate. The palace is surrounded, and 
Belshazzar is slain. Such is the sacred his- 



46 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

tory of the fall of Babylon and the death of 
her last king. 

Berosus, however, the most reliable histo- 
rian respecting that age and nation, asserts 
that the last king was Nabonadius, that he 
was not at Babylon when the city was taken, 
but had fled to Borsippa, where Cyrus sub- 
sequently found him, who, however did not 
slay him at all, but showed him great 
kindness. 

Here is a discrepancy, from which Ration- 
alists have argued the unhistorical character 
of Daniel's narrative, not only invalidating 
this statement, but bringing the truth of his 
whole book into doubt. 

In 1854, Rawlinson discovered the records 
of the reign of Nabonadius, who was indeed 
the last king of the canon. And he finds 
that (as was not uncommon at that day) 
" Nabonadius had associated with him on 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 47 

the throne during the last years of his reign 
his son Bil-shar-uzur, (the Belshazzar of our 
translation,) and allowed him the royal 
title." 

Here was a perfect reconciliation of the 
existing discrepancy. The two accounts 
were different, referring to different individ- 
uals, father and son. No doubt the account 
of Berosus is true respecting the taking of 
Nabonadius. No doubt the narrative of 
Daniel is true respecting the death of Bel- 
shazzar, at his feast, in his palace. The 
former event would most naturally attract 
the notice of the profane historian. The 
latter of the Hebrew prophet, who had been 
called in, in haste, to interpret the myste- 
rious characters upon the wall. 

This discovery, moreover, explains another 
allusion in the book of Daniel, which has 
heretofore been inexplicable. " If thou 



48 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

canst read the writing, and make known the 
interpretation thereof," said the king to 
Daniel respecting the mysterious words on 
the wall, " thou shalt be clothed in scarlet, 
and have a chain of gold about thy neck, 
and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom." 
(Dan. 5 : 16.) 

Why the third ruler, and not the second, 
as in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, who 
placed him next the throne ? (Dan. 2: 48.) 
The answer is easy. There were virtually 
two kings on the throne. Inferior to both 
father and son, he would be the third in 
rank. When the writing was interpreted, 
" Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed 
Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold 
about his neck, and made a proclamation 
concerning him, that he should be the third 
ruler in the kingdom." fDan. 5 : 29.) 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, AET, ETC. 49 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Nineveh. — Sculptures. — Prophecy of Nahum. 

A few years since, through the kindness of 
Mr. Layard, and the influence of our mis- 
sionaries at Mosul, there were sent to 
America, among other interesting relics, 
several large slabs of dark gypsum, taken 
from the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Upon 
each of them is sculptured, in bas-relief, a 
human figure ; and across the drapery are 
inscriptions in the ancient cuneiform 
language. 

Once those gypsum slabs lined the walls 
of the palace of Sennacherib. Once doubtless 

they received the idolatrous homage of the 
4 



50 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

Assyrians. Now they adorn the Museums 
of our Massachusetts Colleges, in the valley 
of the Connecticut, and among the hills of 
Berkshire. Dumb are they, though made 
in the likeness of men. And yet are they 
not eloquent witnesses to the truth of Moses 
and the prophets? 

How rich in illustrations of the truth of 
the Scriptures are the ruins of ancient 
Nineveh — " vetustissima sedes Assyrice" as 
Tacitus styles it. 

The prophecy of Nahum is entitled " The 
burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision 
of Nahum the Elkoshite." (Nah. 1: 1.) 
The native place of this prophet — El-Kosh — 
still stands on the mountain side, some 
thirty miles north of Mosul. It was when 
looking down upon the Tigris valley, and 
the corrupt city, Nineveh, from his mountain 
home, that he wrote his prophecy. In the 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 51 

midst of his glowing description of its over- 
throw, he exclaims : " Take ye the spoil of 
silver, take the spoil of gold, for there is 
none end of the store and glory, out of all 
the pleasant furniture." And, as if looking 
on, until the pillage is completed, he adds : 
" She is empty, and void, and waste." 
(Nah. 2: 9, 10.) 

Now the antiquarian in digging through 
and through those mounds of sculptures and 
hieroglyphics, finds nothing of gold or silver 
there. The spoil of these was all taken, 
though in the strong language of the 
prophet, as he saw that sack in vision, and 
the heaps of precious metals collected, 
" There was none end of them." 



52 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Sennacherib. — His Invasion of Judea. — Jerusa- 
lem. — Lachish. — His Death. 

In the Kings, the Chronicles, and Isaiah, we 
have an account of the invasion of Judea by 
Sennacherib, king of Assyria. This is the 
Jewish record. " In the fourteenth year of 
Hezekiah, did Sennacherib, king of Assyria, 
come up against all the fenced cities of 
Judah, and took them." (2 Kings 18 : 13 ; 
2 Chron. 32 : 1 ; Isa. 36: 1.) Compare 
this record, thrice recorded, apparently by 
three different hands, with the Assyrian his- 
tory of the campaign, as preserved on the 
walls of Sennacherib's palace, to be read in 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 53 

our day for the confirmation of the Scrip- 
tures. " Because Hezekiah, king of Judah, 
did not submit to my yoke, I took and plun- 
dered forty-six of his strong fenced cities, 
and innumerable smaller towns, but I left 
him Jerusalem, his capital city." 

He does not tell us why he left Jerusalem. 
For the kings of the East were not accus- 
tomed to chronicle events that were regarded 
as discreditable to themselves. Isaiah, liow- 
ever, has supplied the lack. He intended to 
take Jerusalem. He sent his general, 
Rabshakeh, to demand its surrender. Heze- 
kiah looked to God in prayer, informed 
Isaiah of their peril, and soon received this 
message from God : " Sennacherib shall not 
come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, 
nor come before it with shield, nor cast a 
bank against it. By the way which he came 
he shall return, saith the Lord. And the 



54 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

angel of the Lord went out and smote in the 
camp of the Assyrians an hundred and four- 
score and five thousand. So Sennacherib, 
king of Assyria, departed, and went, and 
returned, and dwelt at Nineveh." (2 Kings 
19: 32—36.) 

Here are detailed the reasons of his return 
without the overthrow of Judah's capital. 
A plague broke out miraculously in his 
army, God's angel, to turn him away from 
Zion. 

There is a singularly explicit passage in 
the book of Nahum respecting this disastrous 
invasion, (1 : 12) : " Thus saith Jehovah, 
Though they are unharmed and therefore 
many, yet nevertheless ^rjri3, they shall be 
cut off, W), and he shall pass away;" 
where the prosperity of the invasion up to 
this hour, the overthrow of the army, and 
the flight of Sennacherib are all crowded 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 55 

into one verse, the number of the verbs being 
changed to discriminate between the fate of 
the army, and of their leader. 

While Rabshakeh was demanding the sur- 
render of Jerusalem, Sennacherib, his 
master, was besieging Lachish. " He him- 
self (Sennacherib) laid siege against Lachish, 
and all his power with him." (2 Chron. 
32 : 9.) This language implies that the 
attack of Lachish was a notable event of the 
campaign. Perhaps one of the most notable. 
Did the king make any record of it after his 
return? Yes, and Layard has recently 
brought it to the light. (See " Babylon and 
Nineveh, Second Expedition" pp. 149 — 
153.) The wall upon which the scene is 
sculptured is thirty-eight feet in length by 
eighteen in height. A strongly fortified city 
is besieged by an army. The banks or 
mounds of earth are thrown up to aid and 



56 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

protect the besiegers. Seven battering-rams . 
stand before the walls. From the battle- 
ments and towers the besieged are seen 
hurling javelins, stones, and blazing torches 
upon the assailants, while archers and 
slingers on either side are contending 
fiercely for the mastery. Scaling-ladders 
are brought into requisition. The flames 
are bursting out here and there, which some 
are striving to extinguish, others to increase. 
A part of the city is taken. Prisoners are 
captured. A procession of these are on 
their way to the king, who is seated upon a 
royal throne in sight of the combat. Some 
of them are being put to the torture. Some 
lie stretched on the ground to be flayed 
alive, while others are slain with the sword 
before the king. To remove all doubt 
respecting the import of these sculptures, 
there is an inscription over the head of the 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 57 

king, . recording his order: " Sennacherib, 
the mighty king, king of the country of 
Assyria, sitting on the throne of judgment 
before the city of Lachish, I give permission 
for its slaughter." 

How many incidental circumstances rela- 
tive to Sennacherib's invasion, and the siege 
of Lachish are contained on that wall of the 
conqueror's palace ! Every line of those 
bas-reliefs is a witness to the veracity of three 
of the sacred historians. 

In these historical annals of the exploits 
of Sennacherib, there are indications of the 
death of the king while the sculptures were 
in progress. At least, the work was left 
imperfect. The sculptors stopped before 
they had completed several of the scenes 
which they had sketched in outline. 

Who could look on those imperfect sculp- 
tures, and not be reminded of the last scenes 



58 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

of Sennacherib's life, and of his tragic. death, 
as recorded in the second book of Kings. 
(19: 36, 37.) " So Sennacherib departed 
from Judea, and went, and returned, and 
dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as 
he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch, 
his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer, 
his sons, smote him with the sword ; and 
they escaped into the land of Armenia. And 
Esar-haddon, his son, reigned in his stead." 
That he lived some time after his return 
to Nineveh is evident from the progress of 
those sculptures, recording his exploits. 
That he died before all the events of the 
expedition were intrusted to the sculptors is 
evident from their unfinished state. It is 
demonstrable from Assyrian records that the 
Armenians and Assyrians were at this time 
hostile to each other, and therefore in a state 
to invite fugitives from justice in one, to 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 59 

take refuge in the territory of the other, 
according to the Jewish record. And there 
is besides an Armenian tradition that speaks 
distinctly of the murderers, as fleeing to that 
land, and settling there. 



60 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER X. 

* 

Prophecy of Jonah, — Jonah's Gourd. 

The ruins of Nineveh afford interesting con- 
firmations of the statements of Jonah also, 
who was sent to prophesy against it. The 
city is there represented as " an exceeding 
great city, of three days' journey, (i. e., in 
circuit,) wherein are more than sixty thou- 
sand persons that cannot discern between 
their right hand and their left hand," (i. e., 
infants.) (Jon. 4: 11.) Dr. Lobdell has 
shown, that " Koyunjik, Nimrood, Karam- 
less, and Khorsabad, (all of which are 
extensive ruins,) mark the corners of a 
parallelogram, or trapezium, some sixty 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 61 

miles iii circuit, all of which was probably 
once covered with the streets and bazaars, the 
public and private edifices, and the palaces 
and parks of Nineveh. The coincidence in 
dimensions is striking, ' three days' journey' 
in the East being just sixty miles." 
(Memoir of Lobdell.) 

From the same source we have two other 
illustrations of allusions in the book of 
Jonah. "On the east side of the city, Jonah 
made him a booth, and sat under it,, in the 
shadow. And the Lord prepared a gourd, 
and made it come up over Jonah, that it 
might be a shadow over his head." (Jon. 
4: 5, 6.) 

Dr. Lobdell found growing there at the 
present day " a species of pumpkin-squash, 
having very large leaves, and trained to run 
over structures of mud and brush, so as to 
form booths in which the gardeners protect 



62 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

themselves from the terrible beams of the 
Asiatic sun: This, by the unanimous verdict 
of Moslems, Jews, and Christians, at Mosul, 
is pronounced to be the T^jPlj? of the Hebrew, 
the gourd of Jonah." 

" When the sun did arise, God prepared a 
vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon 
the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and 
wished in himself to die." (Jon. 4: 8.) 

Our missionary says : " The east wind 
(E. S. E.) is not to be mistaken. It withers 
and prostrates all before it. Clouds of dust 
and stubble are borne before it, and the hot 
air almost suffocates one." 

Such are some of the verifications of the 
Scriptures that refer to Nineveh, and the 
physical features of the lands in the valley 
of the Tigris. While the desolation that 
reigns every where on the soil trod by many 
millions in Old Testament times, is a direct 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 63 

fulfilment of the judgments denounced by 
the prophets Nahum and Zephaniah. By 
such evidence we know that they were 
inspired prophets, uttering not their own 
maledictions, but the will and plans of God. 



64 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER XI. 

EzekieVs Vision. — Tammuz. 

The prophet Ezekiel records a singular 
vision which he had by the river Chebar. 
Jerusalem seemed to stand before him, and 
one guided him from place to place, and 
* showed him the great wickedness of the 
Jewish nation. " Then he brought me," 
records the prophet, " to the door of the gate 
of the Lord's house, which was towards the 
north, and behold there sat women weeping 
for Tammuz." (Ezek. 8 : 14.) A singular 
vision truly ! " Women weeping for Tam- 
muz ! " The curtain drops! a new vision is 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 65 

presented, and we hear no more of Tammuz 
in the Scriptures. What can the vision 
mean ? 

The classical scholar is familiar with the 
fable of Adonis, the son of a Cyprian king, 
who, fond of the chase, was killed by a wild 
boar that he had wounded among the moun- 
tains of Lebanon. " The river that flowed 
down the mountain's side was called by his 
name, and every year, on the anniversary of 
his death, was said to run blood. And the 
beautiful red anemone, that abounds in 
Syria, was supposed to spring up from the 
earth as a perpetual souvenir." Venus was 
inconsolable, and obtained from Proserpina 
the permission, that he should spend six 
months of the year with her on the earth, 
and the remaining six in the shades. 
Thus much for the fable. But in those 



66 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

days legends had power to mould the popu- 
lar belief, and control the rites of religion. 
They embodied, in fact, the religious opin- 
ions of those heathen peoples. And there 
arose a temple upon the banks of that moun- 
tain torrent, and the Grecian and Syrian 
women annually mourned the death of 
Adonis, and celebrated its anniversary with 
idolatrous rites. 

Such was the state of things in Syria in 
the days of Ezekiel. Tammuz was the Syrian 
name for the Grecian Adonis, whose apothe- 
osis even the Hebrew women had learned to 
celebrate. Hence the prophet sees this 
vision " at the gate of the Lord's house 
which was towards the north," for the tem- 
ple of Adonis was almost precisely north of 
Jerusalem, distant about 150 miles. 

The river Adonis of the classic authors is 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 67 

the modern Ibrahim, or Abraham's river. 
Leaving Beirut, and following the coast 
northward less than a day's journey, the 
traveler comes upon this stream, rushing 
impetuously down a deep and dismal gorge, 
becoming increasingly furious in the rainy 
season. Some three hours' travel up this 
gloomy ravine, and among the overhanging 
cliffs, and almost impassible precipices, he 
discovers the ruins of a vast temple. The 
foundations remain, but the walls are fallen 
inward, and lie in the utmost disorder. 
Such was the site of the temple of Venus 
and Adonis — the Syrian Tammuz. And 
into those dark defiles multitudes annually 
crowded to celebrate the death of the 
Cyprian hunter, and the inconsolable grief 
of Venus, in rites too licentious to be men- 
tioned. That temple remained until the 



68 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

days of the first Christian emperor. Con- 
stantine put an end to its execrable rites by 
ordering its demolition. But every stone 
remaining there bears testimony to the idol- 
atry of the Jewish women, and the inspira- 
tion of the exiled prophet, Ezekiel. 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 69 



CHAPTER XII. 

Cavern of JBezetka. — Solomon's Temple. 

For years to come every visitor to the holy 
city will account the vast cavern under 
Bezetha as one of the lions of Jerusalem. 
For centuries it was hid from the knowledge 
of the world. It was discovered a few years 
since by Dr. Barclay, Missionary to 
Jerusalem. 

The entrance to this cave is near the 
Damascus gate, on the north side of the 
city. It extends under the city, and is 
about eighty rods in length, and half that 
distance in breadth. It is an artificial 



70 f INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

cavern, cut in the solid rock. When, and 
for what purpose ? 

Jerusalem visitors have long looked with 
surprise upon the huge stones at the base of 
the ancient wall, some of them between 
twenty and thirty feet in length. There are 
also immense vaults under the southern part 
of the temple area, constructed of Roman 
arches, which are sustained by numerous 
rows of square pillars, four feet in diameter, 
some of which are thirty-five feet in height. 
They are of the same material as the 
immense blocks in the temple wall, and 
belong to the same style of architecture. 
They carry us back to the time when the 
foundations of the temple were laid, of 
course to the age of Solomon and his master 
builders. 

The question has often been asked, 
" Where were those huge blocks quarried, 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 71 

and how were they transported to the sum- 
mit of Moriah?" The discovery which 
enables us to answer these questions, affords 
several interesting verifications of the Jewish 
record. Let us recall the account of Solo- 
mon's labors. u The king commanded and 
they brought great stones, costly stones, 
hewed stones, to lay the foundations of the 
house. And Solomon's builders did hew, 
and the stone-squarers ; so they prepared 
timber and stones to build the house. And 
the house was built of stone made ready 
before it was brought thither ; so that there 
was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool 
of iron heard in the house while it was in 
building." (1 Kings 5 : 17, 18 ; 6 : 7.) 

Read now this history standing by the 
Damascus gate, near the mouth of that vast 
quarry, and how credible and luminous 
does every word become. Enter that 



72 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

cavern, and behold the blocks of stone half 
quarried, still adhering to the rock, showing 
the process by which they were detached, 
and the kinds of tools used in elaborating 
them ; for " their marks are as plain, and 
well defined, as if the workman had but just 
ceased from his labors." {City of the Great 
King j p. 446.) 

The floor of the quarry is covered with the 
chips and debris, caused by the elaborate 
finish of the columns and arches there, that 
" neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of 
iron might be heard in the house while it 
was in building." How easily too were 
those blocks, when quarried, transported to 
their present positions ! For Be^etha over- 
looks the temple area, the mouth of the cave 
beneath it being several feet higher than the 
foundations of the house. Quarried, and 
trimmed, and beveled, those massive blocks 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 73 

might easily have been conveyed to their 
present positions on rollers. And this sup- 
position is at once suggested, we may almost 
say proved, by an allusion in a letter of the 
enemies of the Jews to Darius, as recorded 
by Ezra. They say, "The house of the 
great God is builded with great stones" 
literally, " stones of rolling" i. e., so large 
as to be transported on rollers, and hence, 
"great stones." 



74 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Early Spread of Christianity. — Persecutions. — 
Catacombs of Rome. — Sculptures. 

The New Testament as well as the Old, 
furnishes abundant incidental evidence that 
its several parts are inspired. We will select 
a few illustrations only from the many that 
might be adduced. 

There are several statements of Luke and 
Paul that imply a wonderfully rapid spread 
of Christianity, in the latter part of the first, 
and the beginning of the second centuries. 
" The Word of God increased, and the num 
ber of disciples increased in Jerusalem 
greatly, and a great number of the priests 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 75 

were obedient to the faith." (Acts 6 : 7.) 
In narrating the death of Herod Agrippa, 
which took place some ten years after the 
ascension of Christ, it is said again, — " The 
Word of God grew and multiplied." (Acts 
12 : 24.) Nor was this rapid spread of the 
truth confined to Palestine. A few years 
later than the event just referred to, Paul is 
preaching at Ephesus. He confounds the 
Jewish exorcists, the Holy Spirit falls on 
Jews and Greeks alike, and the testimony is 
again repeated, — " So mightily grew the 
Word of God and multiplied." (Acts 19 : 
20.) Follow Paul to Rome. He assembles 
the Jews at once, and begins to preach 
Christ to them. Some believed as soon as 
they heard the truth. And converting " his 
own hired house " into a chapel, he preaches 
at least two years, and gathers a church at 
the capital of the Roman Empire. 



76 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

His Epistles written during that imprison- 
ment indicate the progress of the truth. 
" My bonds in Christ are manifest in all the 
palace, and in all other places. And many 
of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confi- 
dent by my bonds, are much more bold to 
speak the Word without fear." (Phil. 1: 
13, 14.) In the closing salutation of this 
epistle, he adds, "The brethren that are 
with me greet you. All the saints salute 
you, chiefly they that are of Csesar's house- 
hold." (4 : 21, 22.) 

Here are indications that even in Paul's 
day the gospel had taken deep root at Rome. 
What scenes of persecution must have trans- 
pired then at the very capital of the world, 
during those centuries when Pagan emperors 
" set themselves against the Lord, and 
against his anointed ! " 

There has recently come to light monu- 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 77 

• 

mental evidence respecting the spread of 
truth, and the persecutions that followed, no 
less interesting than that which we have 
gleaned from the exhumed palaces of Nine- 
veh and Babylon. It is but a few years 
since the Catacombs, those wondrous vaults 
under the "eternal city," filled with the 
bones of the martyrs and early Christians, 
were explored, and these relics brought to 
the light. What scenes of distress and of 
triumph were enacted in those eight or nine 
hundred miles of streets, no imagination can 
picture. It has been computed that no less 
than six or seven millions of souls found a 
retreat and a grave there, though only a few 
feet of earth separated them from their foes. 
What a commentary are these vast sand-pits, 
filled with the bones of ten generations of 
Christians, upon some of the words of the 
apostle who preached the gospel there ! 



78 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

" They wandered about in sheep-skins, and 
goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tor- 
mented, (of whom the world was not 
worthy,) they wandered in deserts, and in 
mountains, and in dens and caves of the 
earths (Heb. 11 : 37, 38.) 

And there they slept. And how beautiful 
the coincidence between the words of the 
apostle, " I would not have you ignorant, 
brethren, concerning them that are asleep, — 
them also which sleep in Jesus," (1 Thess. 
4 : 13 — 15 ;) and the rude epitaphs carved 
upon those Christians' tombs ! Every where 
the words, " In pace " (in peace) meet the 
eye. Every inscription attests the Christian 
faith of the sleeper; many a one the 
martyrdom. 

" In Christ. In the time of the Emperor 
Adrian, Marius, a young military officer, 
who had lived long enough, when with 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 79 

blood he gave up his life for Christ. He 
rests in peace." 

" In Christ. Alexander is not dead, but 
lives among the stars. While on his knees, 
and about to sacrifice to the true God, he 
was led away to execution." 

These simple testimonies to the faith and 
martyrdom of the dead, often carved in the 
mortar with the trowel of the mason, are an 
eloquent testimony to the manly, sinewy 
piety of the early martyrs. " They counted 
all things but loss, that they might win 
Christ." (Phil. 3: 8.) What a meaning 
do the scenes through which they are here 
seen to have passed, give to those other 
words of the apostle in bonds, " If in this 
life only we have hope in Christ, we are of 
all men most miserable." (1 Cor. 15 : 19.) 
Every grave in those dark recesses is radiant 
with the hope of immortality. 



80 INSPIRATION OP THE SCRIPTURES. 

In the rude specimens of art that are 
found there, they expressed their faith in 
the great facts of Old Testament history, as 
we now receive them. There are pictured 
the temptation in the garden ; the sacrifice 
of Isaac ; Moses striking the rock ; Elijah 
ascending to heaven.; Daniel in the lions' 
den ; his three companions in the fiery 
furnace ; and Jonah devoured by a whale, 
and vomited on dry land. These scripture 
facts were evidently received as literal 
truths, not as myths and fables. And yet 
they had been taught the Scriptures by the 
immediate descendants of the apostles. 

There too are sketched the visit of the 
Magi to the infant Saviour ; the baptism of 
Christ ; the healing of the paralytic ; the 
turning of water into wine ; the feeding of 
five thousand; the raising of Lazarus; the 
last supper; and th6 crucifixion. Thus 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 81 

have we their testimony to the interpretation 
of the New Testament facts. It was in the 
faith of these, as literal truths of history, and 
of the doctrines that underlie them, that 
they suffered the loss of all things, and hid 
themselves in the caves beneath the proud 
pagan city. 

As we look on those sacred mementoes of 
their suffering lives, we feel that we are one 
in the faith of Christ, and the interpretation 
of the Scriptures. We turn away repeating 
with a quickened faith that precious clause 
of the apostle's creed, " I believe in the 
communion of saints. " 



82 INSPIRATION OP THE SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Paul at Athens. — At Ephesus. — The Goddess 
Diana.— Asiarchs. — Town Clerk. 

As an example of the accuracy and trust- 
worthiness of the New Testament writers, 
let us consult the narrative of Paul's visit to 
Athens. "His spirit," it is said, "was 
stirred within him when he saw the city 
wholly given to idolatry." (Acts 17 : 16.) 
But Athens is the city of which Xenophon 

testified, " nolig oh] [to/uog, olrj Ov/ua Oeo'ig xal 

urtidijua." " Tlie whole city is an altar, the 
ivhole a sacrifice to the gods, and a votive 
offering" Of which Livy wrote, " Athence 
simulacra deorum homiiwmqw habentes. 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 83 

omnigenere et materia et artium insignia" 
" Athens, having statues of gods and men of 
every variety both of material and style of 
art." Josephus too, in his reply to Apion, 
shows that the religiousness of the Athenians 
was proverbial. " Apion, who hath no 
regard to the misfortunes of the Athenians, 
or of the Lacedemonians, the latter of whom 
were styled by all men the most courageous, 
and the former the most religious of the 
Grecians" 

How true to the character of the Atheni- 
ans is that parenthetic clause thrown casually 
in, revealing an accurate knowledge of 
Athenian society. " We would know," said 
the philosophers, " what these things mean. 
•(For all the Athenians and strangers which 
were there, spent their time in nothing else, 
but either to tell or hear some new thing.) " 
Athens was the city to which strangers would 



84 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

naturally resort for sight-seeing. And the 
greediness of the Athenians for novelty is 
well illustrated by a question of Demosthe- 
nes, " Tell me, Do you wish to go about in 
the market place asking each other, What is 
the news ? " 

Paul has been preaching upwards of two 
years at Ephesus. At length a tumult is 
excited by Demetrius and his fellow-crafts- 
men. The rabble gathers at the theatre. 
The silversmiths make an harangue, showing 
the dangers that threaten the worship of 
Diana. " And all with one voice about the 
space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana 
of the Ephesians." (Acts 19 : 34.) Until 
recently it was not known that the title 
Great Goddess had been specially given to * 
Diana among the Greeks. But about a 
century ago a manuscript of Xenophon was 
discovered, in a passage of which a virgin is 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 85 

represented as swearing by the goddess of 
her native city. "'O.u^w 77^ nuigiov i^iv 

Q)tov ti)v fieyixlrjv ' EcpeaLwv "ylqiefuv" u J 

invoke oar ancestral god, the great Diana 
of the Ephesians." An inscription too has 
been brought to light containing the same 
phrase, " ^g fieydl^g Oe<xg "Egrefiidog." 

" And certain of the chief of Asia," 
(rives z&v 'Aouxq'/uv^ protected Paul. (Acts 
19 : 31.) These Ephesian Asiarchs also are 
referred to on coins and inscriptions. 
" They were ten in number, selected by the 
cities to preside over the public worship, and 
approved by the proconsul ; of whom one 
was the chief, and always resided at Ephesus, 
the capital; the others were his colleagues 
and advisers." (Rob. Gr. Lex.) 

As the tumult increases, the " town 
clerk" (0 ygaii^ajevg^ comes forward and 
" appeases the people." (19 : 35.) There 



86 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

have been found three inscriptions in which 
this officer is mentioned. The speech of the 
town clerk, by which he appeased the people, 
furnishes another incidental allusion that 
proves the genuineness of the narrative. 
"Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there 
that knoweth not how that the city of the 
Ephesians is a worshiper (vew.oQov^ of the 
great goddess Diana. 5 ' (Acts 19: 35.) The 
title Neoeoros, literally temple-sweeper, 
applied at first to the lowest menials who 
had the care of the temple, became an 
honorable title, and was appropriated by the 
city, and stamped upon its coins. These 
therefore afford the means of illustrating the 
allusion, and proving the accuracy of the 
historian. 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 87 



CHAPTER XV. 

Roman Government as seen in " Luke " and 
" The Acts of the Apostles." 

How accurately is the Roman Government 
depicted in the Acts, wherever there are 
incidental allusions to it ! Caesar, the Em- 
peror, is on the throne. "I stand at Caesar's 
judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. 
I appeal unto Caesar." (Acts 25 : 10, 11.) 
And to Caesar is he sent. . The Provinces, 
however, were governed by proconsuls. 
And Luke alludes to the proconsuls of 
Cyprus, Ephesus, and Achaia by the classic 
Greek term 'Avdvnuiog. Now the moment a 
historian descends to particulars, we are able 



SO INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

to test the accuracy of his narrative. And 
we ask, Was Cyprus at that time under pro- 
consular authority ? Formerly it was a 
pretorian province. But both Strabo and 
Dio Cassius assert, that Augustus, the 
ancestor of the then reigning Caesar, had 
" given it up to the people, and so proconsuls 
began to be sent." This title is found on 
Cyprian coins, and in an inscription of the 
reign of Claudius, the predecessor of Nero. 
Luke then was exact. Cyprus was at that 
time governed by proconsuls, though a short 
time previous it was not so governed. 

" Gallio was proconsul of Achaia," says 
Luke, at the time Paul was preaching at 
Corinth, its capital city. (Acts 18 : 12.) 
Are we able to verify this historic allusion ? 
According to the testimony of Dio Cassius, 
Achaia was originally a senatorial province, 
and of course governed by proconsuls. But 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 89 

Tacitus relates that Tiberius took it into his 
own keeping, and governed it by legates 
during his reign. From the life of Claudius, 
by Suetonius, we learn that in the fourth 
year of his reign this monarch restored it to 
the senate, from which time it was governed 
by proconsuls again. But the fourth year 
of the reign of Claudius was only two years 
before Paul's visit to Corinth. 

How easily an uninformed, unreliable 
historian might have mistaken here. But 
we find no tripping in our author. He is 
minutely accurate in the whole narrative. 
In his Providence, God has preserved the 
evidence of this accuracy in the profane 
annals of that age. 



90 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

" TJie Foolish Galatians" — The French. 

Paul had preached the gospel to the Gala- 
tians with great acceptance. Alluding to 
their enthusiasm, and the ardor of their 
attachment, he says in his letter to them, 
(Gal. 4 : 15,) " I bear you record, that if it 
had been possible ye would have plucked out 
your own eyes, and have given them to me." 
After his departure, however, Judaizing 
teachers came in, and turned their minds 
against him. Hence the strong chidings of 
his epistle. " I marvel that ye are so soon 
removed from him that called you unto the 
grace of Christ, unto another gospel." 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 91 

(Gal. 1 : 6.) " 0, foolish Galatians, who 
hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey 
the truth ? Are ye so foolish ? Having 
begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect 
by the flesh ? " (Gal. 3 : 1, 3.) 

These reproofs indicate an exceedingly 
fickle nation, fond of novelty, enthusiastic in 
the extreme, but — 

" To nothing fixed but love of change" 

Were these the characteristics of the 
Galatians? Calliniachus calls them a " fool- 
ish people." Hilary, who was himself a 
Gaul, and Jerome, both use the phrase 
" Gallos indociles" unteachable, or intract- 
able Gauls ; fully justifying Paul's language 
as referring to an acknowledged national 
characteristic. 

There is another source of j)resumptive 
evidence. Who were those Galatians ? 



92 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

Originally inhabited by the Greeks, the . 
province of Galatia was conquered by the 
Gauls from western Europe, about two 
centuries and a half before the Christian 
era. Strabo calls it rcdlo-ygouxta^ (Gallo- 
Graecia, hence by contraction, Galatia,) 
from this intermingling of the Gallic and 
Hellenistic races. We may expect, there- 
fore, to find at Galatia the national charac- 
teristics of the Gauls. These characteristics 
are still seen in the French nation, who 
inhabit the country then known as Gaul, 
and who have descended from the same 
ancestors as the conquerors of the Asiatic 
Galatia. 

How striking a confirmation of the words 
of Paul, " Foolish Galatians — so soon re- 
moved from him that called you — bewitched 
— beginning in the spirit, to be made perfect 
in the flesh," is afforded by the recent 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 93 

history of the French nation ! In a little 
more than half a century, they have passed 
through as many revolutions as there are 
days in a week. And yet they have always 
been enthusiastic, and full of admiration for 
the last governmental novelty, easily adjust- 
ing themselves to types and characteristics 
of government the most directly opposite to 
each other. " Vive Y Assemblee ! " " Vive 
la Republique ! " " Vive 1' Empereur ! " 
" Vive le Roi ! " " Vive le President ! " and 
" Vive 1' Empereur ! " have been vociferated 
in rapid succession ; and through all these 
changes, the people have been buoyant, but 
never provident ; loving liberty, and yet 
fitfully submitting to tyranny and oppres- 
sion ; rising in spasms to be free, but never 
cool, never calculating, never fixed in their 
purpose, never religious in their aim, never 
prayerful; and so God forsakes them, and 



94 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

turns their counsels into foolishness, and 
makes them a standing verification of the 
truthfulness of Paul's delineation of their 
character— " Foolish, bewitched Galatians!" 
Turn which way we will we find some- 
thing to illustrate and confirm the veracity 
of the Scriptures, and the inspiration of the 
men who wrote them. Scan their represen- 
tations as closely as we may, we cannot con- 
vict them of error, I will not say, in the 
great outlines and leading themes of which 
they treat only, but even in the thousand 
casual allusions to places, persons, charac- 
ters, governments, officers, laws, revolutions, 
the founding or overthrow of cities and 
nations. No where else within the range of 
literature can such exactness and precision 
be found. It is more than human ; it proves 
itself Divine. 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 95 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Science, — Circulation of the Blood, — Weight 
of the Atmosphere, — The Pleiades. — The 
Firmament, 

In scientific circles there has been a ceaseless 
effort to invalidate the statements of Inspira- 
tion. In the infancy of almost every science, 
scepticism has seemed to see principles and 
data opposed to the Bible. The Scriptures 
cannot be called scientific writings, it is 
true ; that is, they were not designed to 
teach the sciences of any age. Nevertheless, 
it is found as science advances, that its laws 
have been anticipated and presupposed in 
the Hebrew Scriptures. 



96 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

According to the statements of Moses, it 
would seem that previously to the flood, 
flesh was not eaten as food. After that 
event, God said to Noah, "Every moving 
thing that liveth shall be meat for you. But 
flesh with the life thereof, (which is the 
blood thereof,) shall ye not eat." (Gen. 9 : 
3, 4.) In the formal announcement of the 
Levitical Law, it is three times repeated. 
"The life of the flesh is in the blood." 
(Lev. 17: 11, 14; Deut. 12: 23.) Here 
was announced a great physiological truth. 
And on it was based a law, which the Jewish 
nation were to observe through all their 
generations, forbidding them to eat blood. 
This law was very imperative, and was 
designed to make the blood sacred in their 
esteem ; " Because it is the blood that 
maketh an atonement for the soul." (Lev. 
17 : 11.) God was disciplining the world 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 97 

for the reception of his Son, and the exercise 
of faith in his blood. Hence the so earnest 
announcement and reiteration of this truth 
— Blood, the life of the flesh. And yet with 
the help of Moses' statement of this law, 
from the lips of God, men of science have 
not believed it until recently. It was 
reserved for Harvey and Hunter of the last 
century to discover the office of the blood, 
and to enunciate the truth which God 
revealed to Moses, more than 3,000 years 
ago. 

A recent Essay in Blackwood's Magazine, 
upon the " Wonders and Curiosities of the 
Blood," opens with this paragraph : " Blood 
is the mighty river of life, the mysterious 
centre of chemical and vital actions." An 
important scientific truth, established by a 
long series of experiments. But Moses 
affirmed it thirty centuries since. How did 



98 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

he alone of all the race know it ? He was 
not accustomed to dissect human bodies. 
He was neither a Physiologist nor a Physi- 
cian. No other answer can be given, that is 
at all satisfactory, except this, — It was 
directly revealed to him, as he affirms, by 
Him who knows all the secrets of the animal 
economy. He was employed to make known 
a truth, which it took the world a score and 
a half of centuries to discover. 

Age after age men have read the beautiful 
aphorisms of the book of Job. But who has 
understood, until these later days, the deep 
meaning of the statement, " He maketh the 
weight for the winds," or as Barnes has 
more literally translated it, " To the winds 
he gave weight." (Job 28: 25.) Only 
about 280 years have passed since Galileo 
was imprisoned by the Holy Inquisition for 
interpreting the Scriptures in accordance 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 99 

with the revelations of his telescope. It was 
during that imprisonment that he was 
applied to by an artisan to solve this ques- 
tion in hydrostatics : " Why will water rise 
in a vacuum only 32 feet?" Galileo believed 
it was the "weight of the winds," i. e., of 
the atmosphere, that caused the water to 
rise. But the fear of the Inquisition hushed 
the thought, and he gave the evasive reply : 
" Nature abhors a vacuum only to the height 
of 32 fcctr 

The truth, that was then suppressed, has 
since his day been demonstrated, and 
received. The exact weight of the winds is 
known. The truth which Job asserted in 
the oldest book in existence is at length 
believed. God taught it to the world by the 
man of Uz, more than 3,000 years ago. 
But men of science have not been willing to 
receive their data from this source, and 



100 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

hence for centuries they have remained in 
ignorance of this scientific truth. 

" Canst thou bind the sweet influences of 
the Pleiades?" said God to Job, in that 
series of interrogatories that overwhelmed 
him with self-abhorrence and penitence. Is 
there not here a beautiful poetic allusion to 
the apparent attraction of the Pleiades for 
the sun and planets ? Astronomers tell us 
that our solar system is moving towards the 
star Alcyon, one of this group, as though 
drawn by its " sweet influences." Who but 
He who " holds the stars in his right hand, 
and spreads out the heavens like a curtain," 
could have known that fact, in that 
patriarchal age ? It has taken centuries of 
observation and experiment, with the aid of 
the most accurate instruments, to determine 
it. Job recorded, most manifestly, what 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 101 

was revealed to him from the Author of all 
the laws of the universe. 

Until recently, the rotundity of the earth 
has been accounted heresy in all scientific 
circles. But Isaiah exclaimed concerning 
God, " It is He that sitteth upon the circle 
of the earth," f^n a*in, "Orbis terrarum," 
Rob. Lex. 

In Moses' account of the creation of the 
world, he says, (Gen. 1: 6.) "And God 
said, Let there be a firmament in the midst 
of the waters, and let it divide the waters 
from the waters." The word rendered 
"firmament" is ? H p^, an expanse, something 
spread out, extended, i. e., space without 
sensible limit. But when the Old Testa- 
ment was translated into Greek, (B. C. 
250,) the word vrsQi&pa, any thing hard, 
firm, solid, was adopted as its synonym ; for 
such was the opinion of that age concerning 



102 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

it. The Vulgate, (A. D. 383,) following 
the erroneous example, rendered the word 
by " firmamentum ; " and our English 
version, (A. D. 1611,) by "firmament" 
It appears then that Moses was scientifically 
exact in his expression of the historic fact, 
according to the modern theory of the 
heavens, a theory based on evidence that 
cannot be shaken. How was he able, in the 
days of the Pharaohs, to write with greater 
scientific and philologic exactness, than the 
most learned Jews, of the days of Ptolemy, 
the critical, " the scientific period " of 
Grecian literature ? The question admits 
of but one answer. Moses was inspired of 
God to write that which should be consistent 
with all the facts of nature; which should 
therefore anticipate the discoveries and 
principles of science, and be seen to corres- 
pond with them. His translators were not 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 103 

so inspired. They carried therefore the 
errors of the ages in which they lived into 
their translations. 

The believer in the inspiration of the 
Scriptures has no cause, then, to fear the 
disclosures of science. As yet, no one fact 
has been produced, or law discovered, which 
is in conflict with Revelation. Every feature 
of science, when fully wrought out, and its 
bearings seen, confirms and illustrates what 
"holy men of old wrote, when they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost." 



104 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Manners and Customs of Bible Lands. 

The allusions of travelers to the habits and 
customs of Bible lands afford interesting 
circumstantial evidence of the inspiration of 
the Scriptures. The dress of the inhabi- 
tants ; the methods of irrigating and tilling 
the soil ; of threshing and winnowing the 
grain ; of burying the dead, and beautifying 
their sepulchres, all correspond with the 
scenery of the Bible. Every page of Scrip- 
ture is said to be luminous, when read 
amidst the stereotype customs of Egypt, 
Palestine or Assyria. There are the 
"women grinding at the mill" as in the 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 105 

'days of Christ. There the shepherds "going 
out before their flocks, calling them all by 
name, and known by every sheep." There 
are the numerous yokes of oxen attached to 
the same plough, as when Elishah ploughed 
with twelve, as Elijah met him, and threw 
his mantle over him. There too is the con- 
course of citizens at the gate of the city, for 
traffic, marriage, controversy, and judgment; 
as when Lot was found by the angels sitting 
in the gate of Sodom ; as when Boaz took to 
him the Moabitess, Ruth, and redeemed her 
possession ; as when David complained that 
those that " sat in the gate reviled him ; " 
and Solomon extolled the husband of the 
virtuous woman as one " known in the 
gates, and sitting among the elders of the 
land ; " or as when Matthew was called from 
the " seat of custom," in this place of con- 
course. And there also are seen the 



106 INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

" cottage in the vineyard, and the lodge in 
the garden of cucumbers," and in the desert 
is heard the braying of the wild ass, and the 
passing traveler sees him " snuff up the 
wind," and gallop away in the distance, as 
he was accustomed to do in the days of the 
sufferer of Uz. 

And thus every page of the Scriptures is 
authenticated, by all we know of the man- 
ners, customs and rites of the orientals. 
They furnish the fullest proof possible, that 
they were written at the age they purport to 
have been written, and amidst the scenes 
and customs from which their illustrations 
are drawn. 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 107 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Conclusion. 

This incidental, indirect testimony might be 
increased almost at pleasure. It is continu- 
ally accumulating, never before so rapidly 
as at this age, when the antiquarian, the 
traveler, and the missionary are exhuming 
the relics of all those sacred lands, where the 
scenes of Scripture history were laid. 

This evidence, by itself alone, when col- 
lected together, would be sufficient to estab- 
lish the Divine origin of the Scriptures. It 
could be accounted for upon no other 
assumption. 

We need not then resort to presumptive 



108 INSPIRATION OP THE SCRIPTURES. 

evidence, and say, God ivould naturally 
make known his will to men ; we need not 
show that all parts of the Scriptures are so 
interlinked by prophecies and their fulfilment 
after the lapse of centuries, as to bar all 
doubt in the candid mind ; we need not 
turn to the miraculous powers of those 
whom God employed to write the Scriptures, 
as proof that they were divinely commis- 
sioned ; or to the contents of the sacred 
writings themselves, revealing as they do a 
purer morality, and holier precepts than 
man uninspired has ever originated in any 
age or nation ; or to their effects upon the 
hearts and lives of men, as they have gone 
out to develop humanity, to civilize and 
Christianize the race. We may turn away 
from these more direct proofs that " all 
Scripture is given by Inspiration of God," — 
but we shall find all science, all history, all 



GLEANINGS FROM SCIENCE, ART, ETC. 109 

antiquarian relics, all ethnographic discov- 
eries, all the memoranda of travelers, and 
all passing events uttering the same testi- 
mony. The starry constellations will repeat 
it. The deep strata of the earth, the cur- 
rents of the ocean, and the aerial tides that 
distribute the waters that are above the 
firmament will echo the momentous, the 
joyful truth, — The Scriptures are the 
Word of God, the infallible rule of 
duty. Yes, and every Infidel, as Hume and 
Gibbon, and the madder host of rationalists 
of our day have done, will help to 
confirm it. 

THE END. 



s J 1 

Si 



, l w 




Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



as no 



